Tagged: Gorilla Grodd

Ah, that ripe, slightly pungent smell of plots thickening like some rustic stew when the turnips are thrown in! Alright, perhaps that analogy’s not the greatest, but if the inclusion of Gorilla Grodd in a Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern crossover isn’t at least just a little bit turnippy then I don’t know what possibly could be. Last issue’s big reveal was one of the most audaciously silly things I’ve seen in a mainstream comic for a while now. Guy Gardner is leading a crack team of Lanterns to a timelooped Earth ruled by sentient apes so of course he decides it would be a good idea to borrow Grodd from Belle Reve and take him with them. Because absolutely nothing could go wrong with a super-intelligent, monstrously powerful telepathic, ten-foot primate on the team against his will, could it? If, like me, you were left aghast at how wrong-headed that decision was – not only strategically, but also morally (they’re apes; he’s an ape – everything should be fine!) – then you’ll probably want to read on…

Before we get to Grodd, though, we return to Sinestro who’s having one of those almost-informative-but-not-quite conversations with a restrained (physically as well as emotionally) Zaius. Sinestro hints at a number of things here – his plans for the ring, how he got to Zaius – but nothing is really spelled out. The main reason for the conversation is to show Sinestro finding out where the universal ring is – the Forbidden Zone – and to remind us that he’s a bit of a sadist. A couple of his lines are drily amusing, particularly the one about ‘sacrifice’, but, given the rather dramatic way last issue ended, this opening is a little low key.

Male apes have external genitalia, remember?

And that continues as we move to Hal getting out of the city, escorted by his friendly apes who, it turns out, are absolutely rubbish at subterfuge and physical activity, although, to be fair, it’s Hal who breaks their cover by recognising an ape who was unkind to him last issue. Is female characters kicking male ones in the groin a trope now? It would seem so as Zira takes care of the guard by unleashing a kick at this most sensitive of areas, although her “That hurt a bit more than I would have thought” is quite funny. Hal and friends reach the outskirts of the city where Nova is waiting for them with some spare horses. I wonder if Hal’s role as surrogate Taylor will extend to the romance department. Perhaps fortunately, we’ll have to wait to find out.

Because we’re back in the Forbidden Zone for an epic confrontation between General Ursus’ forces and Cornelius and his newly-minted army of mutant ring-wielders. What you might expect happens: a full-on bunfight that is thoroughly deserving of the two-page spread Bagenda gives it, although it’s portrayed very much as a free-for-all brawl with very little sense of strategy from either side.

The narrative shifts mid-battle to New York where Guy and his team of GLs are heading towards the spot where Hal disappeared with the intention of replicating his shift across the ‘chronoscape’, a neologism that is about as useful a plot concept as Doctor Who’s infamous ‘timey-wimey’ stuff and as well-explained. Guy is carrying Grodd in a construct cage and referring to him as a ‘monkey’ much to Grodd’s really rather understandable annoyance. This section is horrifyingly hilarious. No one thinks that taking Grodd with them to a planet of intelligent apes is a good idea. Not even Guy thinks it’s a good idea. He admits that he is not “really a good idea guy” which might qualify as the “you don’t say” moment of the century. Why Kilowog and Arisia are so content to go along with him is a complete mystery to me, but there is a kind of sick fun to be had in watching Guy’s complete lack of diplomatic skills sow seeds that you just know are going to reap a harvest of Grodd-shaped disaster later on in the series.

The GLs finally arrive in time for the second half of the ongoing battle between Cornelius and Ursus and there’s some pretty impressive stuff here. Grodd uses his telepathy to devastating effect (note that Kilowog is impervious to his mental powers; this will, I suspect, be important later), leaving only Cornelius standing. Guy’s about to attack him when… Atrocitus and a bunch of Red Lanterns show up. Now, given that we had a whole scene last issue explaining how ridiculously difficult it was to access this timelooped alternate Earth, the Red Lanterns showing up like this is a little bit too convenient. While it’s true that Arisia felt like she was being watched when in New York and there’s a line of Atrocitus’ dialogue that mentions him waiting for the “lanterns to open the way”, the implication that the Reds managed to avoid being detected by the Greens on Earth and then somehow slipped through the chronoscape in their wake is less than convincing to me. We’ve already seen green rings detect red activity in the first few issues of Green Lanterns. Why wouldn’t they do the same here?

But… this is crossover stuff and I guess we’re expected just to go with the flow. The introduction of Atrocitus as yet another player who wants the universal ring mixes things up nicely. The issue ends, however, as it began – in a low-key way and with the focus on Sinestro. The revelation at the end of the issue is intriguing more for its implications than anything else and, my occasional misgivings about plotting convenience and Guy’s stupidity notwithstanding, this issue does leave me wanting to read more.

Overall, then, this is pretty enjoyable. Guy is written reasonably well and is always fun to read. The back and forth with Grodd is both excruciating and funny. Hal’s story is suffering a little because it’s already familiar to anyone who’s seen the first film, and the conflict between Ursus and Cornelius, though spectacular and exciting enough, doesn’t really seem to be leading anywhere, but the introduction of the Red Lanterns and Sinestro’s discovery at the end of the issue show that the creators still have the capacity to throw some real surprises at the reader. Bagenda’s artwork remains good but seems a little sketchy at times; his depiction of the Red Lanterns’ arrival is impressive, some of his facial expressions less so. That aside, there’s a lot to like here and the story is, for the most part, fun which, surely, is what a crossover like this should be all about.